A five-year-old boy with autism has been left without a birthday present - after a stranger apparently made off with the parcel.

Little Haydn's family are appealing for the person who "stole" the item to "do the decent thing".

Suzanne Weaver, 39, ordered a dinosaur backpack for her five-year-old nephew's birthday - but it never arrived and Royal Mail later confirmed it was picked up by somebody else.

Royal Mail is now investigating the matter.

Haydn, from King's Tamerton, has autism and has taken a particular liking to dinosaurs and often "loves to pretend he has a tail", which prompted his Aunt to order the backpack which featured a dinosaur tail.

Read More

Suzanne was told that the item was collected at West Park sorting office, after not being able to be delivered the first time- but Suzanne's sister, Stephanie Kirby, did not receive a card through the door.

She said: "Through investigations it transpires someone else in the Plymouth area received the delivery card from the post office, then took themselves to the West Park sorting office and knowingly took a parcel that was not addressed to them."

Stephanie, who lives in King's Tamerton, said she was "just very disappointed that someone can be so dishonest and not care that they have ruined a little boys birthday present".

Read More

Suzanne said: "I think it's really bad to steal something for a child, you can see it's for a child, it's a toy.

"I just want the person to do the decent thing and give it back or apologise. It's disheartening that someone could do that."

She added: "I will be ordering another one but I feel someone should absolutely own up to this. Why take something that isn’t yours and why keep it when you see it’s for a child."

Royal Mail have been contacted for comment and are currently investigating the matter.

Haydn and little brother Harrison

Royal Mail’s website states: “We’ll leave one of these [something for you] when we've attempted to deliver something to your address but nobody was in.

"The card explains why we couldn’t deliver and shows how you can collect your item or arrange a redelivery.

“The fastest way to get your item is to collect it from your local Customer Service Point. Your card will give details of where this is and the opening hours. It will also tell you how long to wait before trying to collect.

“We’ll hold items for 18 days, or 21 days if they're international items. If they’re not redelivered or collected in that time, we’ll return them to the sender.”